Looking Back At The Jerseys Worn By The Tampa Bay Stom

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With the recent announcement that the Tampa Bay Storm will cease operations. I thought to go back and look at the various looks they have sported throughout their history.

The Storm would begin life in Pittsburgh as the green and gold Gladiators, debuting a unique logo that incorporated an arm into the letter.

1987-1990 look

Very little would change other than a switch to white pants with a solid green line down the side from gold pants that had a alternating white green stripe in 1988

In 1991, the Gladiators will move to Tampa and ditch the green and gold for blue, black, and silver. It will last from 1991 to 1997

The helmet logo was the Storm wordmark outlined in white minus the Tampa Bay

Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of the Storms 90s uniforms was the zubaz.

It appears the Storm wore a blue helmet for their road unis

The Storm logo on the blue helmet was white with the lightning over the o silver

In addition, the Storm had a Chargers-esque black alternate

The Storm would introduce gold in 1997 ditching the black, silver, and zubaz for blue and gold. The logo was modified to slant the Storm wordmark and shrunk the Tampa Bay so it can be over the S and T. The most eye catching change was the O which was changed from the old lightning design to be in the shape of an "storm". This look will last from 1997 till 2011 making this their longest lasting look and they tweaked the jerseys quite a bit over the span.

The pants were white for both road and home with alternating gold blue stripes

Font for road unis were changed in 2001 with gold outline and black dropshadow (pictured on the right)

2003 saw the addition of a gold side panel and the blue stripe is thinned. storm logo on sleeves. First sign of mono uniforms

The Storm made it to the Arenabowl in 2003 and they seemed to have switched out the storm logo on the sleeve for GV on the right side

while on the left sleeve, the wordmark was put

road unis unchanged outside of storm logo in place of jersey manufacturer, Storm logo is filled in with blue

2004 had the stripes removed and the Storm logo was removed while wordmark is added

2006: drop shadow removed

Gold panels reduced to stripes. numbers filled in with gold

2007 brought with it gold numbers and a white outline. numbers are no longer filled in and storm wordmark on top of number in front side

Storm wordmark replaced with logo and the stripes are restored with Storm wordmark incorporated into it

Road unis have blue numbers with gold outlines and the dropshadow is restored

In a rare moment,the Storm did not tweak the unis as far as I know

The 2009 AFL season was cancelled but returned for 2010

no changes for 2010

2011 saw the Tampa Bay Storm brighten the blue and gold and tweaking the logo to include a gold drop shadow to the storm and the storm O to more resemble a football. Tampa Bay position is more akin to 90s logo and no longer over S and T

The blue helmet and white facemask return, Storm football logo is on sleeve, gold sidepanel on shirt, storm wordmark on front on top of numbers. What really stands out besides other than the brightened colors is the piping which extends from under the armpits down to the pants where it ends in a curve

Uniforms remained unchanged until 2015 when they extended piping

Piping on white jersey colored yellow so it stands out more

Their final season in 2017 will see the complete removal of piping and the panels replaced with slanted panels and diagonal stripes

the 1997-2011 look was one of the most gorgeous looks in football, along with the Orlando Predators, Philly Soul and Arizona Rattlers before they went to the crap look a few years ago. Copper, Seafoam Green and Black and the R logo was iconic. AF1 actually had some great looking uniforms.

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That's a shame. It's a shame the AFL has basically died the way it has the past few years. I really loved watching the Utah Blaze and even the occasional game on TV. I'd much rather see the AFL make a full healthy comeback compared to the XFL.

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Some very strong identity work went into some AFL teams over the years:

Philadelphia hit the charcoal/grey/anthracite way before it became trendy, and still owns a unique look in pro football with that color scheme:

Arizona also had a very unique look for its beloved Rattlers in their heyday, including a very excellent use of copper helmets:

One of the very best I think was the New Orleans VooDoo, whose use of color and iconography were outstanding:

The Utah Blaze had a solid logo, with a beautifully understated icon on the helmet:

This league will be fully dead soon, and given its recent foray into well thought-out team identities, it'll be sad to see those fine efforts going dormant:

I wouldn't say it is close to dead yet. The direction they have been going as of late is being a regional northeast league. looking at the AFL current teams and rumored expansion, it appears to be true.

Albany

Baltimore Brigade

Philadelphia Soul

Washington Valor

Newark (Rumored)

Brooklyn (Rumored)

team in New England region?

Tampa was only the southern team and with no teams near by, travel surely took a big toll on them. If you ask me, the league's fate hangs on Ted Leonsis continued support and so far so good it seems

I appreciate the depth of this look at the Storm's unis, but some of your timeline is off, most notably 2003. Those Russell uniforms are from when the league-wide contract with Russell began, in 2007.

As for the Rattlers using orange "in a beautiful way," that was merely Russell's half-cooked attempt at copper while making the distinctive sleeve pattern (originally a brilliant play on classic Northwestern striping) into a tacky gradient thing.

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I appreciate the depth of this look at the Storm's unis, but some of your timeline is off, most notably 2003. Those Russell uniforms are from when the league-wide contract with Russell began, in 2007.

As for the Rattlers using orange "in a beautiful way," that was merely Russell's half-cooked attempt at copper while making the distinctive sleeve pattern (originally a brilliant play on classic Northwestern striping) into a tacky gradient thing.

I'm pretty sure those Charger-style blacks were the mid-90s homes, given one of my earliest memories of Arena ball was the Storm playing against the Drive wearing a white version of said uniform. Sure, everybody remembers the Zubaz unis, but I don't think they were worn for as long as a lot of people think they were.

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I'm pretty sure those Charger-style blacks were the mid-90s homes, given one of my earliest memories of Arena ball was the Storm playing against the Drive wearing a white version of said uniform. Sure, everybody remembers the Zubaz unis, but I don't think they were worn for as long as a lot of people think they were.

You're more than likely right. Info about arena football unis on the web is incredibly iffy and for some teams, uniform pics are either incredibly rare or don't exist.

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I'm pretty sure those Charger-style blacks were the mid-90s homes, given one of my earliest memories of Arena ball was the Storm playing against the Drive wearing a white version of said uniform. Sure, everybody remembers the Zubaz unis, but I don't think they were worn for as long as a lot of people think they were.

Zubaz were essentially gone after the 1992 season. Zubaz were worn once in the 1993 season after halftime against Miami and twice in 1994 against Miami and Milwaukee